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Content warning: this film involves issues of sexual assault and abortion.

The Story

La Ciega is a thirteen-minute live-action film about a blind mystic named María Cotanilla who lived in Spain in the 17th century. An outcast in her small village, María finds in her mystical visions a world of her own—one where she can explore color, desire, divinity, and her own boundless creativity, safe from the repressive eye of her neighbors. María, known in her village as “la ciega,” (the blind woman) sees what no one else can: silver-tongued suitors dripping with pearls, donkeys and maidens frolicking in forest clearings, the Virgin Mary’s gown billowing twenty-five feet off the ground. But María’s visions take a dark turn when, late one night, a mysterious intruder enters her room and assaults her. She tries to put the vision behind her, but finds the boundary between fantasy and reality crumbling before her. When she can no longer ignore the fact that she is pregnant, María must find a way to reclaim control of her life.

The story of La Ciega—the events, the visions, characters, and even some of its dialogue—is taken directly from the transcription of María Cotanilla’s 1675 Spanish Inquisition trial. While doing research at the Archivo Histórico Nacional at Madrid, Susannah (co-writer/co-director) came across the original document—hundreds and hundreds of yellowing pages stacked tidily in a box, nearly untouched since it was first penned by the courtroom scribe. The Spanish Inquisition put María Cotanilla on trial and ultimately banished her for thinking and living outside its repressive norms. But ironically, it was the Inquisition’s own meticulous record-keeping that preserved María’s story for us almost 350 years later. As María’s neighbors testified before the court, they were, in a way, dictating what would become the only documentation of María’s life. And when the Inquisition called upon María Cotanilla to testify on her own behalf, they were unknowingly giving her pages and pages to tell her own story, to write her own life into the historical record.

History has tried to erased subversive women like María Cotanilla. Records were (and still are in large part) reserved for kings and lords—not for blind peasant women. To come across a document like this is to unearth a forgotten life, to find a window into stories untold. Even in the lifeless folios and the stuffy courtroom proceedings, María’s strength as a storyteller shines through. It was her power to captivate an audience that rendered her a threat to the Inquisition, and it was this same gift that compelled us to make this film.

Working against "disability drag"

Stories of women like María—especially poor and disabled women—are still excluded from our conversations, our politics, our history books, and our art. As we sat down to brainstorm one afternoon, we realized that we couldn’t name a single film that starred a blind actor. Films that feature blind characters often cast sighted actors to play them. In our film, we want to work against this practice of “disability drag,” which excludes talented disabled actors from the industry—actors who could bring talent to any role and who could add more depth to portrayals of disabled characters. So, we’ve been working with the Braille Institute of Los Angeles to cast a blind/low-vision actor for our leading role. We have been reaching out to the community—observing blind theater troupe rehearsals, talking to blind actors in the area, and consulting with our friends at the Braille Institute—to learn how we make our set an inclusive, accommodating, and safe work place for our actors. We are determined to do this right and to make sure that our film is responsible in its portrayals.

Expanding conversations on women's reproductive rights

Although María Cotanilla was born almost 400 years ago, her story is incredibly poignant in our world today. It speaks to our current conversations on women’s bodies, on sexual assault, on abortion, and on believing women when they share their stories. As a woman living in the the 1600s, María had so few options for her livelihood, career, and her body, and likely resorted to attempt a self-induced, home abortion. Even in 2009, studies indicated nearly half of abortions performed worldwide were still unsafe due to limited access. The kinship we feel to María and her story is a reminder of how far we have yet to go. It also reminds us of our intergenerational camaraderie—that so many women before us have resisted, and that we must continue to resist as well.

As filmmakers, lovers of the surreal, and admirers of forgotten, subversive women, we could not be more thrilled to bring María Cotanilla’s vision-world back to life. Where she was punished in the past for seeing the world through her own eyes, today we want to celebrate María’s fierce independence and artistry. This film has it foundations in years of research, and we can’t wait to bring our creative interpretation to this material.

Our Team

Raphael and Susannah met in college, where they spent long hours sharing their writing and eating junk food. One night, over a draft of Susannah’s thesis, we decided to take our collaboration a step further and turn this story into a film. With Raphael’s filmmaking focus on surrealism and Susannah’s historical research background, this project is collaborative to its core. While we wrote the script together and will soon direct it, we owe our deepest gratitude to the story’s true author, our collaborator in absentia: María Cotanilla herself.

Susannah is a writer, translator, and filmmaker from scenic New Jersey. Her work has been published in Words without Borders, WWB Daily, Lithub, and Ramona: revista de artes visuales. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in history where was awarded the White Fellowship for Excellence in History and wrote a high honors thesis on the life and trial of María Cotanilla. Recently, she co-directed a music video for “I Love You // Like the Sun” by New York-based electronic artist Qire. She currently works at Anne Edelstein Literary Agency and lives in Brooklyn with her dear friend Raphael and his toothless cat, Zoila.

Raphael is a writer, filmmaker, and animator born in the Bay Area and raised in San José, Costa Rica. He graduated with honors in Film and Creative Writing from Wesleyan University, where he met and began working with Susannah. He has been making short films since age 13, with a focus in stop motion animation. While at Wesleyan, his work was featured at Zilkha Gallery’s “Be the Art” exhibit. In 2015, he completed his thesis film, Wald, a stop motion and live-action film based on a classic Italian folktale as told by Italo Calvino. This past year, he has collaborated with several musicians on music videos, including “I Love You // Like The Sun” by Qire and “Desert Song” by YATTA.

Rachel Day’s foray into film producing began with Wald, Raphael’s senior thesis. Since then, she has produced a number of different projects, many through her work as Head of Production for Illegal Civilization. These include the short films Becoming Amine with Vevo and Summer of ’17 with The Fader, as well as Rex Orange County’s Sunshine music video. She is deeply invested in projects outside of film - from the Center for Prison Education in Connecticut to the Women’s Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles, from live sound engineering to mosaic laying. Through her commitment to a wide cross-section of organizations and mediums, her contribution to each project is enriched by her involvement in others.

Erin Bates is a visual artist and producer with a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. She has programmed, performed, and shown multi-media installations at Superchief, Think Tank and Junior High art galleries in Los Angeles. She has art directed various commercials, web series, live events, and music videos. Erin is currently a project coordinator at Production Resource Group where she’s worked on Amazon Prime’s The Grand Tour, and coordinated fashion shows for Tommy Hilfiger, H&M, and Erdem.

Maria Maea is an LA-based performer, artist, and designer. She uses her unique skills to move through the creative worlds of art and production. Maria was project manager for the building of adobe bricks for artist Rafa Esparza’s Figure Ground: Beyond the White Field, an adobe rotunda exhibiting works by brown artists at the 2017 Whitney Biennial. She has continued her work as an adobe builder with Esparza for Tierra. Sangre. Oro., an exhibition of brown works currently at Ballroom Marfa. Her experiences in radical community building through these projects have influenced her way of creating spaces as a designer. Maria’s work in film production includes costuming for SyFy Networks Face Off, production design for BuzzFeed, as well as various shorts and music videos.

Mariah has been working in the film industry for seven years in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Madrid, New York, and Connecticut (another Wesleyan grad. Yet another). Mariah moved to Brooklyn a year ago where she has been designing for films, music videos, and commercials. She produced Z Behl’s short film, Gepetto last year and has worked in the art department on such films as Tim and Emily and has done set design for AT&T, Nike, Chase, Garmin, and Harper’s Bazaar. She also nearly shares the name ‘Maria.’

Budget

We’ve planned a four-day shoot outside of Los Angeles, where we’ll be filming on location at historical churches. Putting together historically accurate sets and costumes is an expensive endeavor, so a significant portion of our budget has been allocated to this department. We are so lucky to know many talented, creative people who are willing to give their skills and time to this project, and we are committed to supporting their work with fair pay.

Thank you for your support!

We are so incredibly grateful to you for your support. Anything and everything will count toward bringing this project to life. Be sure to check out our enticing rewards for your contributions. Many thanks and muchas, muchas gracias.

A VERY, VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Gabe Gordon for graphic design, to Jackson Sabes for storyboard art, to Jesse Allain-Marcus, Portia Lundie, and Nolan Boomer for assisting with filming and production, to Madison LaClair, Rachael Nisenkier, and Lauren Sands for production wisdom, to Samuel Garcia for historical wisdom, Kai Wilson and David Schwab for script wisdom, Andy Fradkin for legal wisdom, and to the Braille Institute of Los Angeles for all their important work. And thank you, of course, to all our family, friends and supporters for all your love!

Risks and challenges

In the past, we have taken a no-budget, DIY approach to filmmaking. We’ve made a lot with very little. However, in order to bring María and her world to life, we will need to bring 17th century Spain to life with her. That means shooting where there are no cellphone towers, no concrete pavement, no zippers. We’ve done careful research on what we need to execute this feat (like years and years worth of research). In order to do this right (and with historical accuracy), we need to invest real money into renting period-appropriate costumes, dressing our sets with furniture and objects from the time, and getting permits for shooting on-location at historic churches. The devil's in the details, and so are we. Your contribution will help us do justice to María’s story, her experience, and her moment.